NEUTRALISED: Police SHOOT ISIS goon with backpack who was ‘plotting France terror attack’

A TERROR suspect wielding a black backpack has been shot and arrested in dramatic raids across Belgium as police continue operations in THREE countries to crack a HUGE terror network.

Police said they have ’neutralised’ a person in Schaarbeek during raids which have been taking place since last night. Prosecutors today said the man has been linked to a planned terror attack in France which was foiled yesterday.

??#Bruxelles Opération de police à #Schaerbeek, une explosion et des coups de feu entendus, une personne neutralisée pic.twitter.com/RcOmKUCXFk

— Geoffrey Henriot (@HenriotGeoffrey) 25 березня 2016 р.

Dramatic photos have emerged of the man lying in a tram stop with glass surrounding him and the backpack dangling from his arm.

It was not immediately clear what the bag contained, but police took no chances and sent in a remote controlled robot to him to check he was not armed or wearing a suicide belt.

The area is on 'lockdown' as the pubic are kept far from heavily armed agents and soldiers circling the area.

The bomb squad is also on scene and the 'explosion' is believed to have been a grenade set off by officers to stun the occupants of a house, local media has said.

?? Opération anti-terroriste à #Schaerbeek: le service de déminage sur place avec un robot #Bruxelles pic.twitter.com/DJX397uDsE

— Geoffrey Henriot (@HenriotGeoffrey) 25 березня 2016 р.

The Belgian prosecutor's office has confirmed the arrested is connected with an arrest in France, over a planned attack.

Raids have been taking place across Europe as police attempt to disrupt a HUGE terror cell spread across in THREE countries, following the bombings in Brussels on Tuesday which killed 31 and injured almost 300.

Nine people have now been arrested in Paris, Germany and Belgium, according to media reports, after raids through the night.

Six arrests were made in Brussels on Thursday while a seventh was reported on Friday morning. Police said a further three arrests have been made today as anti-terror officers continue their lightning crackdown on ISIS operatives.

Armed police swooped on a number of addresses in the districts of Schaerbeek and Jette in an operation believed to be directly linked to Tuesday's terror attack which killed 31.

Among those detained is the man who was seen at the Metro Station in Maalbeek with Khalid El Bakraoui before he boarded a train and detonated a bomb, De Standaard newspaper reported.

It was reported police recognised the man from CCTV footage.

The arrest has not been confirmed.

Schaerbeek is the area where the three bombers who targeted Brussels airport planned the massacre, working out of a small flat which has already been raided by police. The seventh was arrested in the district of Forest.

The arrests come as a French man was arrested in the anti-terrorist operation in Argenteuil, in northwestern Paris, the French interior minister said.

The Frenchman arrested has now been identified as a convicted ISIS recruiter.

It is understood 34-year-old Reda Kriket had been under police surveillance for 'quite some time' and was in the 'advanced stages' of planning an attack.

German police have arrested two people in connection with the bombings, German newspaper Der Spiegel reports.

The suspects received text messages including the names of the bombers, shortly before they blew themselves up, it has been claimed.

One was arrested near Frankfurt and the location of the other was unknown, according to Der Spiegel.

Earlier this week Europol said the Paris and Belgian attackers were linked and France admitted seven of a THIRTY-STRONG terror cell were missing in Europe.

Belgium's Interior Minister Jan Jambon confirmed that a successful anti-terror operation has been launched just hours after his offer to resign over a series of security blunders was rejected by the Government.

The latest revelations come after US authorities revealed that they know who the identity of one fugitive bomber who has become the world's most wanted man.

The 'man in white', who appears on the right of an infamous CCTV image showing the three alleged terrorists, has been on the run since the attack on the Belgian capital two days ago.

He has been dubbed the 'man in white' because of his appearance in a white coat — compared to his two alleged accomplices who are wearing black — and is believed to be on the run.

Secretary of State John Kerry has now touched down in Belgium to show solidarity with the country, and offer American assistance.

Stepping through Zaventem Airport which was the scene of a horrific terror attack, Mr Kerry appeared determined to repeat his offer to help with the investigation and efforts to fight terrorism.

He will meet with Belgian officials including Prime Minister Charles Michel and Foreign Minister Didier Reynders, as well as EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

Brussels is a large diplomatic and military base for Americans working at US missions in the city as well as at the European Union and NATO.

About a dozen Americans were among those hurt in the attacks, although it is not clear if any were killed.

But US officials have told Sky News tonight that they now know who he is and that he is even on the country's terror watch list. It is not immediately clear whether he is one of the men arrested in the latest raid.

A massive global manhunt is now on for the world's most wanted man. The revelation raises the possibility that he could soon be caught and hauled before the Belgian courts.

He is believed to have taken part in the bombing, which killed at least 31 people and wounded 300, alongside two brothers.

Ibrahim and Khalid Bakraoui, who both blew themselves up, were also on the US terror watch list, according to Reuters.

It comes comes after Belgium's terror watch status was lowered from the highest to the second highest level earlier today.

The country's security services and police have been under fire for a series of devastating blunders which meant they failed to stop the deadly attack.

Yesterday Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed Ibrahim El Bakraoui, one of the brothers responsible for the attacks on Brussels Airport yesterday, was sent to the Netherlands in June last year.

He said Belgium had ignored Turkey's warnings the Brussels attacker was a jihadi militant and was later released by Belgian authorities because they said "no links with terrorism" were found.

Mr Jambon has admitted that "errors" were made by security services and today offered his resignation, which was rejected by the country's Prime Minister.

At least 31 people were killed and 270 injured in Tuesday's terror attacks on Brussels Airport and the Maelbeek Metro station in the Belgian capital.

Ibrahim El Bakraoui left a will and statement on a laptop found abandoned in a bin near the Brussels district of Schaerbeek where a police raid on a flat found an Islamic State (ISIS) flag and other bomb-making materials.

Statements from Ibrahim on the device said he "was being investigated, no longer knew what to do, was being looked for everywhere, was no longer safe" and that he risked "ending up next to [Salah Abdeslam] in a cell".

Detectives found 15kg of explosives, 150 litres of acetone, 30 litres of oxygenated water, detonators and a suitcase filled with nails.

As more information about the suicide bombers emerges, Belgian media has reported Najim Laachraoui was a university dropout.

Laachraoui, was enrolled at the l’Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and he studied science engineering in 2009-10.

But he failed a second year and left.

The university confirmed his enrolment and also that he left and did not attend his exams.

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